Midland’s Barker receives award for excellence in volunteerism, professional life

Published
2:00 am EST, Sunday, February 19, 2012

Nancy Barker, the first time YWCA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for Midland County, got her first taste of volunteerism while in high school.

Since then she hasn't stopped.

Barker remembers her principal at Fowlerville High School had taken her small class to a cheerleading conference at the University of Michigan.

“While we were in Ann Arbor he thought it would raise the spirits of one of our classmates who had been in the university hospital for many weeks recuperating from some very serious, life threatening surgery,” Barker said over the phone a few hours before the awards presentation began Wednesday.

“When we got to her very stark room in what was then a rather cavernous hospital, everybody seemed to be a little overwhelmed by the place, nobody seemed to really know what to say to her. So we stood there kind of awkwardly around her bed in what I still remember as an increasingly uncomfortable silence,” she said.

After a few minutes Barker had her classmate laughing a little as they talked about the football game the night before and who called the square dances at the dance held after the game.

“I remember that she laughed a little, which considering her circumstances I realize now was pretty amazing,” Barker said.

The next day she was called to the principal's office. The principal wanted Barker to know the positive impact she had on her classmate in the hospital.

“Well, first of all, that was probably the first and the last time I've ever been complimented for being talkative. But more importantly, I'll never know if it was the pleasant glow I felt after hearing the principal's words, or my very first realization that even though one person can't cure another person, just being there, can help,” she said.

Barker accepted the award at the YWCA's first-ever Women of Achievement Awards in Saginaw at the Horizons Conference Center Wednesday evening along with fellow lifetime achievement award recipients Jean Goodnow from Bay County and Culli Damuth from Saginaw County.

“I have been receiving a lot of credit lately for what everyone in this room also knows from experience is a team effort. I am not being falsely modest when I say I do not really have any great talents. I don’t sing, can’t draw a straight line and going to be left behind by the intricacies of social communication and technology if I am not careful,” Barker said at the award ceremony.

“Nancy really improves the environment and empowers women. Nancy is a role model to any women wanting to make a serious contribution not only to the profession but to the community,” Calvert-Baxter said.

Barker said she considers herself a “ladylike rebel” and a career woman — even when being a career woman wasn't popular.

“I guess I have actually always thought of myself as sort of a ladylike rebel and certainly a career woman. As someone who went to work in the 1970s even though one of my friends told me that comfortably affluent women in Midland didn't do that!”

“Women were just going back to work. It sounds crazy now because a lot of women are leaders in the workplace.

Barker spent 37 years working at Northwood University where she was the first woman officer as vice president of university relations. She also started the women's career program at the university. In addition, serves on the board of Michigan Women in Higher Education.

“We are working on issues of women's access to education. Many of the women who most need training find it hardest to afford and receive it. There is a lot of back history to overcome. Women's pay started lower years ago and still has not reached parity.”

Barker told those in attendance Wednesday evening that it doesn't take a certain set of skills to volunteer.

“You don't need a specific talent. You just need energy and enthusiasm and a willingness to pitch in, but mostly you need a sense of humor,” Barker said.

One of Barker’s ongoing passions is the arts.

“When I moved to Midland I discovered that people love living in a place where there is visual beauty, where their children can learn to do creative things and where intellectual curiosity thrives. But that does not just happen without a lot of support and there still are those who think that is just frosting on the cake. It isn’t! It Is the cake and the meat and potatoes too,” Barker said.

The Women of Achievement Awards honored ten women from the Great Lakes Bay Region who have demonstrated a lifetime of volunteer or professional activities and have made outstanding contributions to empower women or eliminate racism in their communities or organizations.

“When someone is kind enough to offer a lifetime achievement award for volunteerism, I can tell you that it gives one a bit of pause, and maybe makes one a little more introspective than usual,” Barker said.

In 1891, the Young Women's Christian Association of Bay City was incorporated. For the past 119 years the YWCA has provided programs and services to the community to promote wellness and assist those in need. In March 2010, the YWCA of Bay County changed its name to the YWCA Great Lakes Bay Region to better reflect the service area.

“I like that this award is honoring people from the region and also highlighting individual cities,” Barker said.

Musical entertainment for the event was provided by Heritage High School students Chris Buchanan on cello, Rachel Chamberlain and Samantha Johnson on violin and Kara Haskins playing the viola.